Jonathan can better evaluate the popularity of features thanks to TelemetryDeck
CoasterRadio mobile is an app to supplement the CoasterRadio.com podcast, a weekly podcast all about the theme park and amusement industry, and self-proclaimed “Original Theme Park Podcast.” Users have quick access to the entire podcast catalog in searchable form, all 15 seasons and over 600 episodes. The show encourages contributions from listeners, and users are able to record “live trip reports” in the app from theme parks and send them directly to the producers. Additionally, app users also have access to Theme Park News from CoasterRadio.com, a daily news briefing about the amusement industry. The original version of the app was dropped from the App Store back in 2016, but in May 2021 it was totally rebuilt from the ground-up using SwiftUI and re-released.
I was really looking for something lightweight, inexpensive (this is a personal side-project), easy to integrate, and something that would only send the bare minimum information required for me to obtain useful metrics about app and feature usage. The latest privacy hot topics in the industry with Apple and Google made me feel increasingly uncomfortable as a developer, and I knew with CoasterRadio that I wanted to give the user full control over whether or not any data was sent to any 3rd parties. TelemetryDeck arrived just at the right time.
It was super easy to integrate into my project for starters: Hook up the Swift Package to my Xcode project, import the library, and start sending signals. Get the macOS (or iOS) Viewer app and boom, done. See the magic happening. When I had questions/comments/issues, Daniel was very responsive and eager to help in Slack. I’ve been really happy with how easy everything is to use, plus I like that it’s a continual work in progress. Things are continuing to get better as bugs are fixed and new features are pushed out. I also really like that even once the library is initialized, it won’t send any data until you send a signal.
“I learned this is consistently the most-used feature every single day.”
I start almost every morning taking a quick look at user stats and features people are using most. As an example, I just launched an update this week that includes push notifications and I have been keeping tabs on how many people choose to subscribe to them or not. I’ll also check stats throughout the day to see what people are using the app for. The most interesting thing that I have found to date is that the most widely used feature in the app is actually something that was more or less an afterthought. Thanks to TelemetryDeck I learned this is consistently the most-used feature every single day.